Occurrence of exotic plant species in oil palm dominated landscapes with embedded rainforest remnants in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, 2019
This dataset contains records of exotic plant occurrence within 21 oil palm-dominated sites in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Within each site, exotic plants were recorded along 100m transects in up to four habitats that represented a gradient of disturbance. The four habitats included oil palm, forest-oil palm edge, disturbed forest and intact forest. In addition to exotic plant data, the dataset contains measurements of forest structure for each transect, including canopy cover and number of large native trees.
These data were collected in order to examine the change in exotic species composition along a disturbance gradient from oil palm areas into intact rainforest remnants.
These data were collected in order to examine the change in exotic species composition along a disturbance gradient from oil palm areas into intact rainforest remnants.
Publication date: 2020-09-04
Where/When
- Study area
-
- Temporal extent
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2019-03-02 to 2019-04-08
Provenance & quality
Field surveys were conducted in July to October 2017 and February to April 2019. The 21 sites were all in Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil-certified oil palm plantations. Rainforest remnants, where the forest transects were conducted, were mostly isolated forest fragments (n=15 sites) and six sites were connected to larger tracts of forest reserves outside the oil palm plantation boundary.
At each site, exotic plants were surveyed along 100 m transect in up to four habitats, oil palm (n=21 transects), forest-oil palm edge (n=21), disturbed forest (n=20) and intact forest (n=16). Four rainforest remnants were very small and disturbed and therefore had no ‘intact forest’ and in one site the forest interior was not accessible. All plants were identified to species and their exotic status confirmed with the help of experienced local botanists and species lists compiled from literature. In total 18 exotic species were recorded, made up of forbs, climbers and shrubs, no exotic trees were detected and graminoids were not included due to difficulties with identification. Intentionally planted exotic species (i.e. leguminous cover crop, Calopogonium mucunoides) were also excluded.
The dataset also includes measurements of forest structure (e.g. canopy cover and number of native large trees) along the length of each transect.
At each site, exotic plants were surveyed along 100 m transect in up to four habitats, oil palm (n=21 transects), forest-oil palm edge (n=21), disturbed forest (n=20) and intact forest (n=16). Four rainforest remnants were very small and disturbed and therefore had no ‘intact forest’ and in one site the forest interior was not accessible. All plants were identified to species and their exotic status confirmed with the help of experienced local botanists and species lists compiled from literature. In total 18 exotic species were recorded, made up of forbs, climbers and shrubs, no exotic trees were detected and graminoids were not included due to difficulties with identification. Intentionally planted exotic species (i.e. leguminous cover crop, Calopogonium mucunoides) were also excluded.
The dataset also includes measurements of forest structure (e.g. canopy cover and number of native large trees) along the length of each transect.
Related
This dataset is included in the following collections
Supplemental information
Waddell, E.H., Chapman, D.S., Hill, J.K., Hughes, M., Sailim, A.B., Tangah, J. and Banin, L.F. (2020). Trait filtering during exotic plant invasion of tropical rainforest remnants along a disturbance gradient. Functional Ecology
Correspondence/contact details
Emily Waddell
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Bush Estate
Penicuik
Midlothian
EH26 0QB
UNITED KINGDOM
enquiries@ceh.ac.uk
Penicuik
Midlothian
EH26 0QB
UNITED KINGDOM
Other contacts
- Custodian
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NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centreinfo@eidc.ac.uk
- Publisher
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NERC Environmental Information Data Centreinfo@eidc.ac.uk
- Rights Holder
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UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrologyenquiries@ceh.ac.uk
Additional metadata
- Topic categories
- Biota , Environment , Farming
- Keywords
- Agricultural landscapes, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Borneo, Canopy cover, Conservation set-aside, Flora, Forest degradation, Forest fragmentation, Invasive species, Land use, Logging, Oil palm, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, Sabah, Tropical rainforest
- Funding
- Natural Environment Research Council Award: NE/L002450/1
- Spatial representation type
- Tabular (text)
- Spatial reference system
- WGS 84
- Last updated
- 25 June 2021 18:39